


A Week Later

by Fabrisse



Category: Twelfth Night - Shakespeare
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-18
Updated: 2014-12-18
Packaged: 2018-03-02 02:10:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2795885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fabrisse/pseuds/Fabrisse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sebastian and Viola discuss their new marriages.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Week Later

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Wren Truesong (waywren)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/waywren/gifts).



> Teen for some very minor discussions of sex within marriage.

He found her at the breakfast table. "Sweet sister!"

Viola smiled at him. "Should I return the alliteration and make you 'bad brother'?"

Sebastian's eyes clouded over. "I don't know."

"This is strange. Will you eat? The bread is fresh and the butter as sweet as you claim I am."

He sat at the table cater-corner to his twin and cut some cold meat to have with his bread and butter. 

Viola watched him eat, sipping her weak ale and adding some marmalade to her last few bites.

"You came all this way, Sebastian. Should you not speak of what's troubling you?"

He refilled his tankard. "My wife is a dainty lady, beautiful beyond measure, but I find myself tongue-tied when I'm with her and… Sister, I fear I disappoint her."

"You've been married but a week." She smiled to herself. " _I've_ been married but a week."

"But you knew the Duke before the wedding -- better than most brides do or wives ever can."

Viola patted his hand. "Why say you so? We all meet a stranger on the marriage bed."

"Truly? You and the Duke knew each other very well before the sheets were stained."

Viola blushed. "I was fortunate to be brought up in the country. Mating was no surprise to me."

"Olivia trusted me. I repaid her trust with all the kindness and gentleness at my hands. I didn't just slake my lust."

Viola said, "I didn't mean to imply that you had."

"Did the Duke…?"

Viola's lips quirked. "I believe I was fortunate that his fellows took him aside and reminded him I was no common drab. And my lady's maid was wise and prepared a warm posset to make it easier."

Sebastian's face darkened. "I shall have a few words with my brother-in-law."

"No, you shall not. He left me easy for a day, and by then I began to understand how to waken passion."

"That lady's maid?"

"Most instructive."

There was a long silence and Viola speared little shreds of the cold meat to nibble. Finally, she said, "You were troubled, my brother."

"I've never had words, Viola. Those were always your province."

"You learned well. Had father not died, you'd have been sent to Bologna."

"To learn alchemy, astronomy, mathematics, not poetry or history." He continued, "I would have made a brave student, but words fail me. At night, in our bed, Olivia is passion itself. But in the light, I feel her disappointment. She was wooed with pretty speeches, and Antonio will tell you that I have none."

"What of Antonio now that you are 'Sebastian the married man'?"

"As a favor, a wedding gift, Olivia has spoken to your husband to get him pardoned and made him captain of her best ship. He leaves next week for Egypt and Tunis before returning via Malta with rich things to sell -- all gotten honestly."

Viola smiled. "I'm glad of it. The man who saved my brother should have all to please him." Privately, she wondered if anything could please him without Sebastian by his side. He'd looked sadly and with such longing on Sebastian at the wedding. "Your wife. The fair Olivia?"

"I told you. I lack pretty words."

She smiled at him. "You don't, you know. When you speak of all the things which would have taken you to Bologna, you speak ardently and your words are beautiful."

"So I should show Olivia a precipitation reaction?"

Viola laughed heartily. "No. And I know you aren't so cloth-headed as all that. I have two ideas for you. The first is take her on a late picnic and talk to her about the stars when they come out. Compare her to Venus or the pole star or the most radiant constellation in the sky. Your words will come easily, and she will begin to understand you better."

Sebastian looked at her in wonder. "Father should have sent us both to Bologna. You have as clear a head as any man."

"Clearer, I expect." She said drily.

"And the second idea, my illuminating sister?"

She sighed. "Your wife's wealth has been neglected, I believe. Malvolio may have been an honest steward, but Sir Toby and the hangers-on around him were strangers to frugality. I worry that no one has truly kept her books beyond the household expenses. You could do that, but don't just begin. Offer it, and offer to teach her how. I don't think her father, kind though he may have been, provided well for her education before his death. As you say, she knows honeyed words, but I think numbers may sting her."

"You are wise beyond all sages, Sister."

Viola sighed. 

"Now is it my turn to give advice? I'm unsure what I can offer one so wise."

"I miss my breeches. You have no idea, Sebastian, the freedom you have as a man because it's always been there for you. Spend a month in my skirts with all around you saying what may and may not be done, and you'd soon long to be breeched again."

Sebastian said, "You never did well with expectations. Though, in fairness, I believe your skirts are much warmer during winter."

"Yet they are also warm during summer. It can be difficult."

"You are the duchess now. You set the fashion. Why not have a costume which gives you some freedom for riding or running. None would say anything. Many would emulate you. Freedom for all women."

Viola said, "That's true. I could have some new clothes made for hunting. Start as I mean to go on."

"And your romantic Duke?"

"Treats me more like a queen than a duchess and behaves more like a courtly minstrel from Robin's time. I want to borrow his books. Play music with the musicians. Be a woman to him."

Sebastian said, "But you said the wedding night…"

"There are other ways and places to be a woman, a wife, a helpmeet -- dare I say a friend? I don't miss pretending. I know it may take some time and thought for him to trust me fully since I was someone else to him for so long. But I miss the man."

"Yourself as a man?"

"No. My husband as a man. We became friends, not unlike you and Antonio, I believe. But unlike you two, we two can consummate the friendship and make it sacred with holy words."

He patted her hand. "Which you've done, sweet sister."

"Yes."

"Are you happy?"

"I… Nearly so. I just need to find my balance on this new ship of marriage."

Sebastian glanced behind her. "Or you could just share this with your husband himself."

"I refuse to call you 'Cesario' any more. Let's get that straight," Her husband's rich tones sounded from behind her. "But, oh my loving wife, I can be the man, the friend, with you. I miss that, too." He kissed her cheek, then whispered in her ear, "I'll even share my books."

Sebastian smiled to see his sister smiling. "Viola, I shall heed your advice. And, since the Duke is now here, I can deliver my message. My lady wife asks that you join us for dinner on Thursday. She misses her new sister and would like us all to be friends."

Orsino took his hand and said, "We'll be there with a good will and a good appetite."


End file.
